Bob Hanna — Inside Boxing: Camacho needed guidance

How many times have you heard a boxer from a ghetto say, "If it wasn't for (fill in the blank), I probably would have would up in jail or dead?"

How many times have you heard a boxer from a ghetto say, "If it wasn't for (fill in the blank), I probably would have would up in jail or dead?"

A lot, right? But what about the fighters who weren't fortunate enough to meet a mentor who could have turned his life around?

I suspect Hector "Macho" Camacho, whose rap sheet started when he was a teen growing up in Spanish Harlem, belonged to that group.

As you no doubt know by now, Camacho died last Saturday, four days after being shot in the face while sitting in a parked car with a friend. The friend, who was also shot and died at the scene of the crime, had nine small bags of cocaine in his pocket. A tenth bag was found open in the car.

"The people around him didn't have the guts or the strength to lead him in the right direction," said Juan Laporte, former featherweight world champion and boyhood friend of Camacho. "There was no one strong enough to put a hand on his shoulder and tell him how to do it."

To be perfectly honest, I never cared much for Camacho. Some fighters are cocky in a playful, tongue-in-cheek way, but Camacho never struck me that way. His loud, flamboyant lifestyle quickly grew tiresome to me.

But, and it's a big but, I never met the man — never met the man behind the jeweled necklaces and the swagger.

Yes, he was a talented boxer, good enough to win world titles in three different weight divisions. But I suspect he could have been even better with a more disciplined approach to his craft and his life in general.

I don't know how big a role booze and drugs played during his career, but they obviously were a factor when it was over, and the cheers had faded into the past, leading eventually to his death at age 50.

"A lot of people think of him as a cocky person," said Laporte, "but that was his motto. ... Inside, he was just a kid looking for something."

Attention, respect, love? We'll never know. All we know was that he looked in all the wrong places. And listened to all the wrong voices.

Move over Floyd, Manny and all you other guys at the top of the pound-for-pound list. Make room for the "Cincinnati Kid," Adrien Broner.

Juan Manuel Marquez belongs in there someplace, too, maybe a tie for sixth place with Broner. But not for long.

Broner, you see, is only 23. Most fighters are still working on their apprenticeships at that stage of their careers. Broner has already won world titles in two divisions.

He actually toyed with DeMarco before closing the show with a sweeping left uppercut in the eighth round.

DeMarco was supposed to be Broner's first real test, but he was never in the fight. Broner was just flat out awesome with his hand speed and accuracy.

Yeah, he talks too much, but as Muhammad Ali said, it's not bragging when you can back it up.

The HBO boxing broadcasting team was lavish in its praise of the Robert Guererro-Andre Berto fight last Saturday, but I didn't think it reached the epic proportions they gave it.

It was a brutal, rough, sometimes dirty, fight, no question. But epic? No.

Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, but the sight of two men half-blinded by swelling around the eyes (Berto's right eye was swollen shut and his left was only a slit, while Guerrero's right eye was swollen shut) continuing to beat on each other while the crowd and the broadcasting team cheered, was more pathetic than inspirational. The whole thing had a Roman gladiator feel to it.

It also lacked the clean punching exchanges of the Micky Ward-Arturo Gatti wars. The Berto-Guerrero fight could have been waged in a phone booth.

Most of the fight was spent with Berto's back on the ropes and Guerrero leaning on him as they swapped uppercuts and clubbing hooks, with Guerrero getting much the best of it. The strategy also enabled Guerrero to smother Berto's superior hand speed.

The two knockdowns scored by Guerrero in the first and second rounds both came out of clinches, with Guerrero holding Berto with his right glove and clubbing him with the left, while referee Lou Moret watched.

I don't know if it was legal, but the tactic was certainly effective as Berto seemed unable to tie up Guerrero's left hand.

Guerrero, the unanimous winner, thus completed his Pacquiao-like climb from featherweight boxer-puncher to welterweight tough guy, putting himself in line for a possible megabout with Mayweather in the process.

Which brings us to Pacquiao-Marquez IV on Dec. 8.

This is a tough one. I really believe Pacquiao is going to have to be at his best, or close to it, to win this fight. That means no distractions in his preparation.

After all the controversy over their last two meetings, both won by Pacquiao by the slimmest of margins, I don't think Pacquiao is going to get the benefit of the doubt this time.

He is going to have to win convincingly, which is asking a lot against a guy as good as Marquez, who has already proven the equal of Pacquiao.

I view this fight as a pick 'em affair, but if I must make the pick, it would be Marquez, based on the feeling that Pacquiao has slipped a little in his last two fights.

But then again, if Pacquiao can regain that old focus and fire ...

Bob Hanna covers boxing for The Standard-Times. Contact him at sports@s-t.com

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